The Life of Olgivanna Lloyd Wright

By Maxine Fawcett-Yeske and Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer

While much has been written about the life and the innovative organicarchitecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, little scholarly attention hasfocused on Wright's third wife, Olgivanna, the individual who sparked arenaissance in Wright's career from the time of the couple's firstmeeting in1924. Mystery has long surrounded public knowledge ofMontenegrin born, Olgivanna Lazovich, granddaughter of a noteworthyMontenegrin patriot, and daughter of the Supreme Court Justice ofMontenegro (her father) and a general in the Montenegrin army (hermother). This book marks the release of Olgivanna Lloyd Wright'spreviously unpublished autobiography. It traces her journey fromMontenegro, to Russia, to Paris, where she studied with George IvanovichGurdjieff at the Institute of the Harmonious Development of Man, to theUnited States, through her 35-year partnership with Frank Lloyd Wright,and her unrelenting efforts to keep her husband's ideas and dreamsalive after his death. The Wrights' life together was marked withturmoil and disappointment, yet the couple also traveled in an excitingcircle of friends and acquaintances and was enriched by the youthfulspirit and creativity of the young apprentices who came to study at theTaliesin Fellowship.